She smiled (and blushed) a bit, and answered, "No, I guess not. But why do Father Thomas and the nuns tell us not to do that, then?"

"Jan, you know that there are things about being Catholic that are different from the ways of other churches, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"This is one of those things that the church decided, probably a long time ago, and I suspect that they've been saying it for so long that they couldn't change it now, even if they wanted to. If you want to know why the church thinks it's a sin, you'll have to ask Father Thomas or one of the nuns. I promise you,*I* sure as heck don't know!"

She smiled again, and told me "I don't understand a lot of the stuff that they tell us – and they don't hardly tell us anything!"

"What do you mean 'anything'?"

"Well, like about sex and stuff. I mean, they just tell us don't do it until you're married, but they don't say WHY. I didn't even understand for the longest time that what I was doing" – another blush -"was the 'masturbation' they were talking about."

"Jan, don't they have any kind of sex education or classes about your body at school?"

"Not really. I mean, they showed us a couple of little movies that told us boys were different from girls, and a little bit of how, but they didn't actually tell us anything we didn't already know."

"Do you at least know the names of the parts and all that?" I asked.

"Um, no, not much."

I sighed. Why is it so many so-called adults are so willing to treat teenagers like kids, and then complain that that's what they act like?

How are kids supposed to learn if nobody's willing to not only tell them, but teach them, and explain to them?